Moments that Linger
by the sentiment machine
Summary: The ten year bazooka malfunctions yet again. This time the victim is Gokudera, but he's not ten years older. He's, well, just ten years old. Kind of 8059


**[A/N:] This was orginally called Yamamoto is a Pedo. Anyways, I would like to thank Lemonademouth1456 for making helpful suggestions, since this was written at midnight (because my brain thinks it's fun to come up with ideas when I want to sleep) and has many mistakes. So Lemon dear, you are now my OFFICIAL EDITOR! **

**Enjoy and REVIEW because I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!**

**[Warnings:] A LOT of interrupted thoughts.**

In the midst of a hot summer day, Gokudera finds himself in the Sawada household, in front of a fan to cool off. Yamamoto and Tsuna are trying to play BlackJack but they're failing pretty badly. Of course the tenth would be winning if the baseball idiot would just figure out how to play it correctly.

A few minutes later, Lambo finds his way into Tsuna's house, (probably, through the open window, Gokudera thinks) and is threatening to shoot his ten year bazooka. It's _almost_ as if they were in middle school again and the whole Byakuran mess that happened (or will happen or - even for Gokudera, it's hard to understand) never really did.

Almost.

"Ah, Lambo. Watch where you're pointing that thing," Yamamoto drops his cards (he would've won) and tries to calm Lambo down. Even a complete moron like him doesn't want the mess to happen again.

But Lambo doesn't listen. Gokudera hasn't seen him this upset in a while. So he walks over to Lambo, stands in front of the bazooka, and says, "Stop it, you stupid cow. I'll give candy if you put the damn thing down."

Lambo is still excited over the prospect of candy and he lowers the bazooka and -

Trips.

Gokudera is thinking about how incompetant Yamamoto must be to leave his glass of milk on the floor and how deformed Lambo must be to trip over it. Lambo's arms are flailing, trying to stop the bazooka from falling. So he can have candy, of course. But in the process of trying to stop it, the ten year bazooka goes off.

Gokudera, in spite of his brilliant mind, didn't think the bazooka would go off like this. But it does and he's gone in a puff of pink smoke to who knows where.

**x**

Where is he? He has been lost in alleys, and chased down by ugly mafia men 'cause he stole their food, and running away from Bianchi's cooking (he kinda misses her), and fleeing because he accidentally killed Shamal's mosquito and -

Why did Shamal leave him alone in the apartment? He's really really _really_ scared now but he had been scared before (many times, actually) and he had gotten himself into a lot of trouble with scary consequences but this - this was unnatural. He was in one of Shamal's many apartments (let's see, it has been a minute, so-) two minutes ago, banned from joining the mafia. He was going to sneak out but he got distracted by a piano. So a minute and a half ago, he was playing the piano and then poof! He's -

_Where is he?_

"Hayato?" a Japanese-looking boy asks. He's staring at Gokudera as if he was expecting someone else.

Now he's really really_ really_** REALLY** scared. He knows his name (and is looking at him funny), but Gokudera doesn't know the boy. So why does he know his first name?

"Yamamoto-kun, he looks afraid," the other Japanese-looking boy says to the first one (Yamamoto, huh?).

Wait! They're speaking Japanese! He knows the language and has known it since his piano teacher (his mother really, but, even though it has been two years, Gokudera doesn't fully understand) taught it to him. Maybe his mean old father didn't kill her after all. Maybe he sent her to Japan 'cause he's old and mean. And maybe those two boys knows something about his mother.

"Do you know my mother?" he asks with a frown and bites his lip, so he looks all tough and menacing like the scary mafia men.

The first stranger (Yamamoto) turns around to look at the other boy, who's chasing after a blur of black and white. A small cow maybe? He's never seen a cow except in pictures. He'd like to see one.

"Hayato-"

"You know my name, so you must know my mother!"

The Yamamoto boy shakes his head and looks a little sad. "It's complicated," he sighs.

Gokudera notices that he looks tired when he sighs (except for his eyes; his eyes don't look tired). But what he said isn't the answer to his question so he folds his arms and frowns again and asks, "Do you know her?"

Yamamoto shakes his head, "I've never met her, but-"

"Do y'know if she's dead or alive?" Gokudera chokes the words out quickly. It still stings to think about that. A death he really didn't know about until years later. And it was his mother's death too.

The black-haired boy looks really sad. His lips and eyebrows are pulled into a frown. And his eyes (they're sorta pretty, if he likes the golden-ish colour) look gloomy.

He walks towards Gokudera and when he's in front of him, he sits on his knees so he can look right at Gokudera's face. But the Yamamoto boy is still so much more taller than him. He puts his hands on the little boy's shoulders (like it's an awkward hug, not that Gokudera was given hugs or anything). And all he says is, "I'm sorry."

Now Gokudera is ten, but he understands what the stranger means. And for some reason, hearing it from this pretty-eyed stranger makes it sting a lot more.

The next thing he knows, he's crying. Gokudera really hates himself for crying in front of some Japanese-looking boy, but the tears just tumble out uncontrollably and he's just crying now. He's still mourning over his dead mother (even though there was barely any interactions between them and he can hardly remember her). He wishes the tears would stop and he tries hard to make himself stop crying (he hasn't cried in two years), but it doesn't work.

He hears a sigh again and then he finds himself in a hug. The Yamamoto boy is trying to console him by making weird shushing noises and muttering things like, "Hey there. Things will get better. Trust me. I _know_. Hush. Don't cry, Hayato."

The stranger with pretty eyes is good with consoling and Gokudera stops crying. He feels just a bit better and feels very safe in the Japanese boy's arms, like he's protected form the big bad mafia world.

"How do you know my name?" he manages to ask, in a little while.

The stranger chuckles and Gokudera can feel his breath on the top of his head. He brushes Gokudera's hair with his fingers and says, "It might sound crazy but I've - I mean, will meet you."

The ten-year old boy decides to like the stranger with the pretty eyes because he answered all his questions and even made him feel a bit better.

"Will I ever see you, again?"

The Yamamoto boy smiles as he checks his watch, "Yes. It's been five minutes, you'll go back to wherever you were."

Then he kisses Gokudera on the forehead and whispers a goodbye in his ear as the pink smoke actually takes him back.

**x**

When he's back at the apartment, he plays the piano for his mother. Then he sneaks off and tries to join the mafia, yet again.

**x**

Sometimes, Gokudera wishes the pink smoke would take him so he could see the stranger with the pretty eyes and the Yamamoto boy could make him feel better and safe.

**x**

He has forgotten about Yamamoto now and is involved in the very nasty but very real world of the mafia.

**x**

Reborn sends him to Japan to see the tenth. Gokudera eventually begins to like him and respect him a lot. Then he meets Yamamoto. The first thing he notices are his eyes. Then there is this nagging feeling in his stomach like he knew the guy or something. The same feeling told him that Yamamoto's a person to be trusted and that he'll feel safe with him. Gokudera doesn't like the feeling, so he ignores it and decides to hate Yamamoto. Forever.

**x**

Gokudera finds out that his feeling in his stomach was right after all.


End file.
